This week we wrapped up teaching for the month for our Chinese New Year break. We had tons of fun making Valentine's, teaching them the Cupid Shuffle and playing "musical hearts" with the kids! I gave myself the teacher of the year award when my 1st grader dumped my bucket of glitter on her head and then proceeded to make glitter angels with her body on the ground.. I'm sure her parents love me. Haha!
By Thursday night we were on a plane to Xi'an! It's always quite the struggle getting anywhere with the language barrior but everything worked out! I took my very first taxi ride from the airport to our hostel and man that was quite the thrill. China traffic is INSANE. And taxi drivers are no exception. Our driver was looking at a map, talking on his phone, dodging through traffic and smoking a cigarette. Skill? Yes. Terrifying? Very.
Friday we went sight seeing around our part of the city. We got to see the Bell Tower, Drum Tower & The Great Mosque. Everything here is just an adventure & the architecture is divine. Saturday we saw the Terra-Cotta Warriors with an Irish couple me met. They hired a tour guide and we got to tag along! They really made that experience what it was for us! The warriors were awesome and how they came to be was even cooler!
Sunday we took our first train ride on a hard seat K-Train. It was much more pleasant than I had in mind. The entire ride we were surrounded by a group of men who were trying to talk to us, which was pretty entertaining. We gave them all English names -- Peter was my fave because he attempted to play rock paper scissors with me. Haha! After our train ride we hiked Mount Huashuan. Never have I ever hiked so many stairs in such a short amount of time. Pregame for The Great Wall I suppose.. But aside from the burning legs, it was absolutely stunning!
Four of us girls decided to do the "plank walk in the sky" together too! That made the entire trip memorable. I was terrified once we got to the peak of the mountain where the planks were and honesty wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it. But homeboy with the harness had things to do so he strapped me right up and sent me on my way. There are really no words that would accurately create an image for this so hopefully my pictures will help. But after I conquered my fear and just went for it, I LOVED it.
Overall, Xi'an was a good time! We leave for Guilin today and I'm stoked to adventure this next city! (:
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